Equipped with my new sewing machine know-how and a whole day to dedicate to it, I couldn’t wait to get started on Simplicity K1609, which came free with the July edition of Sew Magazine. I’d also spied Amanda’s (of Sew Deputy) beautiful eyelet version and knew I had to try it.
I know, I know! There aren’t any fancy buttonholes or use of anything even vaguely ‘knitted’ apparent in my Galloping Horses dress, but I definitely felt more in control of my machine 🙂 And here are a whole host of new, but admittedly very basic ‘skills’ I learnt, and yes, I did manage to harness my impatience and finally slow down too…
Here are my, admittedly, very basic questions I asked when I visited the machine shop and that I was able to apply to the making of this dress:-
1. How often do I need to change my needle?
The advice was every six weeks or so. Mmmmm, so given that I got this machine for my fortieth birthday and I’m fast approaching forty two (October, for the record) I probably should have asked about this earlier… Needle duly and easily changed!
2. Why had my automatic threader stopped working?
These are so basic sorry, feel free to skip to the actual sewing bit… She quickly pointed me to the ‘up/down needle position button’ (see, I even got the manual out to look up the technical term). Another exciting, little button she introduced me to was the ‘automatic reverse stitch’, although admittedly I’m still perfecting the use of this as I’m tending to press either too early, and it doesn’t quite complete to the end of the fabric, or too late and it’s reverse stitching thin air.
3. What stitch do I use to finish off seams, instead off constantly using my pinking shears?
She pointed to the overcasting stitch and informed me that I probably had an over edge foot in the accessories pack that came with my machine. And indeed, I did! This was my favourite new discovery and I’m sure it will give my makes a much neater finish. It worked best on finishing my facings, rather than attempting to hem them. They looked a whole lot neater!
As Amanda promised (thank you!), the pattern was really quite straightforward. I was tempted to use a cute, contrasting collar, but in the end I figured this might make it a little too dressy, so opted for a bow in the same material so that I could wear it as a day dress. I think this just about worked out as a day dress, what do you think?
The actual dress pieces were plain sailing, as was inserting the invisible zip. However when I tried it on it was a little ‘snug’ around the hips which resulted in the back being all bunched up. To solve this I simply unpicked the centre seam on the front to allow a little ‘wiggle’ room and to avoid the unsightly back ‘bunching’. This, thankfully, worked perfectly. Although the bow instructions looked pretty complicated it turned out to be mostly common sense.
Because of my chosen material, it was the cutting out that was the longest task in this project. I thought it would look plain odd if my horses weren’t running horizontally so I had to cut separate bits and then re fold my fabric. I wasn’t able to cut the pieces for the bow the right way up though, but as it’s pretty well camouflaged by the busy print, I don’t think this part of it really mattered.
All in all I actually enjoyed forcing myself to slow down with this dress and I’ve probably become a much better wannabe-seamstress in the process 🙂
Woah! That is fantastic! Well done! I just love this dress! I want to make a galloping horses one!! Looks really , really nice.
Thank you, I’m so relieved it had that centre seam to undo though to accommodate my hips! Fabric in the John Lewis sale, might still have some… 🙂
Oh that would be fun! Matching dresses ! I am going to newcastle next week…I will see if it is still in stock! I didn’t actually do the front seam!! I didnt do the seams in the front!! Cut mine on the fold! You should be very proud!
Hi Amanda, did you realise your comment box is somehow turned off? Wanted to comment on your lovely, new trousers 🙂 Great pockets on the back. They look perfect on you.
Oooo. Will investigate! Lol
I have gone right through admin and can’t find how to change it! Never happened before! Any clues???
I’m guessing it’s on the dashboard somewhere. I’m off to the gym in a bit but will take a look later and get back to you if I figure it out…
Thanks, I have just found it on the Admin bit. At the very top under some bizarre title and it was ticked , so I unticked, updated it and then re ticked. Now working! Must be the site just having a moment! Thanks for letting me know tho!
That dress is great– I love the horse print! I am a little surprised that you were advised to change your needle every 6 weeks. I’ve mainly heard that you should change it after sewing with it for 6-8 hours. (Admittedly, I forget to do it quite this often, and I didn’t change the needles on my serger for something like 15 YEARS! Oops.)
Thank you! It sounded a lot to me, but even if I did it twice a year it would be an improvement on the present 😉
Wow, that was quick! The last time I was on WordPress you had only just been shopping! I love the fabric and I really think you should enter it on The Monthly Stitch. Meanwhile I am dreaming of the end of term and then weeks and weeks of sewing and blogging – yay! 🙂
Thank you and have drafted a version for The Monthly Stitch, but all their guidelines on sizes of photos, etc kind of stopped me from actually pressing ‘publish’ as no idea what size mine are other than ‘regular’. Maybe I’ll just press it anyway and have done with it. Hope end of term not too bad, almost there 🙂
Thanks for the push- I finally pressed publish!
Brilliant dress and excellent pattern matching!
Thank you, definitely simpler on a smaller print 🙂
Glad you took the plunge! Your dress gets my vote 🙂
Cute print on your monochrome dress. I don’t have any “different” attachments on my machine – mostly basic. i must look at an up to date machine so I can get the most from my sewing
Thank you! To be honest, I think my machine has far too many attachments 😉 I’m slowly getting to grips with a mere few if them…
This is lovely. I think you could wear this in the day or the evening to be honest – very versatile.
Thank you. I’ve only worn it in the day so far, but think you’re right 🙂
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